Support fresh, local food

Click here to express your support for a Farm Bill that supports fresh, healthful, local food >

Farm Bill panel discussion on June 6

Click here to learn more about this upcoming event at the Ferry Building >

Cherry Festival coming Saturday, June 9!

Activities include:
10:30 to 11 am - Meet the farmer with K & J Orchards
11 to 11:45 am - Kathleen Stewart of Downtown Bakery will demonstrate how to bake with cherries.
11:45 am to 12:30 pm - Eric Gower, author of The Breakaway Cook, will show a creative way to cook with cherries. Book signing to follow.
11 am to 1 pm - Sample the season’s best from all the cherry growers in the market.

Saturday, May 19 ~ Salmon Celebration

The local wild salmon season has begun! Unfortunately, though, the catch is much smaller this year. Come celebrate our wild salmon, and learn why populations have declined and what we can do about it. The day's schedule is as follows:

8 am to 2 pm - Save our Wild Salmon will be at the market to help shoppers learn more about Northern Californian wild salmon and how to help protect it. (South Driveway, near Eatwell Farm).

10:30 am - Larry Miyamura of Shogun Fish Co. will give a glimpse into the life of a salmon fisherman. (CUESA demonstration kitchen, South Arcade of Ferry Building)

10:45 am - Jon Rosenfield, a Fish Ecologist with Save our Wild Salmon, will talk about the biology and ecology of salmon and efforts to protect wild salmon. (CUESA demonstration kitchen, South Arcade of Ferry Building)

11:00 am - Roz Miyamura of Shogun Fish Co. will demonstrate how to de-bone and fillet a salmon and will share her recipe for salmon cakes. (CUESA demonstration kitchen, South Arcade of Ferry Building)

11:30 am - Cap'n Mike and Sally Hiebert of Cap'n Mike's Holy Smoke will tell about their salmon smoking operation and will offer a comparative tasting of different types of smoked salmon. (CUESA demonstration kitchen, South Arcade of Ferry Building)

Noon - Damon Barham of California Culinary Academy will demonstrate a gourmet, Thai-inspired salmon preparation. (CUESA demonstration kitchen, South Arcade of Ferry Building)

11 am to 2 pm - Participate in activities for all ages: salmon hat coloring and gyotaku (Japanese fish printing). (South Driveway, near Eatwell Farm).

Saturday, May 26 ~ Market to Table events

10:30 am - Meet the farmer

11:15 am - Seasonal cooking demonstration
Greg Dunmore of Ame

Tuesday, May 29 ~ Easy Market Meals

11:45 am, 12:15 pm, 12:45 pm & 1:15 pm - Seasonal cooking demonstration by CUESA's Market Chef, Shanti Wilson

All events take place in our Dacor teaching kitchen in the arcade north of the Ferry Building's clock tower.

We are thankful for all of the thoughtful responses to last week’s call for suggestions for how to create a better shopping experience at the Saturday Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Some of you expressed worries about the future of the market, others cited frustrations with logistics, and several expressed satisfaction. If you haven’t yet submitted your practical ideas for how to improve the market, click here (for an anonymous submission) or send an email to info@cuesa.org.

Since we’re a nonprofit organization governed by a Board of Directors, almost all decisions about significant changes to the market and new programs or services are made through committee, often somewhat slowly. Please know that we are committed to constantly improving the market, and are focused on creating a better experience for regular shoppers. Your concerns and ideas varied widely, some contradicting others. We can’t respond to all of your suggestions in our letter today, but here we address some common concerns:

Concern: Recent market departures and the gap they’ve left
We are actively looking to replace items (especially poultry and fish) that are no longer as plentiful in the market. Our market operations team (Dexter and Lulu) have visited and talked with potential protein providers and hope to bring new people in soon. Whenever a fruit or vegetable farm departs, we ask ourselves, do we replace them with a farm with similar products, or do we give the remaining farmers the opportunity to absorb the sales, increasing their profitability? Every decision is carefully considered. If there are certain farm products that you wish you could get at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market but are unable to, email our Director of Operations, Dexter, at dexter@cuesa.org.

Concern: Farmer/Vendor ratio
“The market doesn't need more prepared foods, it needs more farmers.” This was a common refrain in your comments to us, and we agree that the market doesn’t need any additional non-farmers. Since our move from Green Street, we’ve added several prepared food vendors, and the ratio of farmers to vendors has decreased. With each addition, our intention has been to make the shopping experience at the FPFM more complete. By adding soy products, cow’s milk yogurt, charcuterie, and other processed foods, we sought to make the market more competitive with the supermarket, not to draw in tourists or detract from the farmers’ market. We have also added a number of farmers since our move to the building, including Massa Organics (a rice farm). Your concerns highlight the need to maintain or increase the ratio of farmers to vendors and we are discussing the establishment of a minimum ratio. We would also like to clarify that the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market operates outside of the Ferry Building. Inside the building are private retail stores that CUESA does not manage.

Concern: Parking
Though we can’t increase the availability of nearby parking, we can help you to know where it is and how much it costs. We will create a map of nearby lots and how much they cost which will be available on our website and at our Information Booth. Writes one respondent on the subject, “At the risk of sounding unsympathetic, my gut reaction to complaints about a lack of customer parking is to tell folks they need to take transit (unless they have limited mobility, of course). Assuming that at least part of the reason that many folks shop at farmers' markets is a concern for the environment, this would seem to be a no-brainer.” We know this isn’t an option for everyone, but we do strongly encourage you to take advantage of the fact that the Ferry Building is a major transit hub, close to BART, train, bus, ferry, and cable car lines.

Concern: Public transport
We loved your ideas for ways to provide incentives for shoppers to use public transit and are excited about exploring ways to reward the many of you who take the bus, train, cable car, BART, bike and walk to the market.

Concern: Market layout
Writes one reader, “If all of the farmers were in one place that would make it more pleasant and efficient for those of us who actually use the farmers market as a place to buy our food.” Your suggestions for restructuring the market range from putting all of the farmers together in the back to moving all of the perishables up front. With the expertise of two architects on our board and the input of three market sellers, we are working on creating a more shopper- and seller-friendly layout and will pass your suggestions along. All of these changes must be vetted with farmers and sellers. Though we are limited by space and regulations, we are trying to think outside of the box on how to improve the flow of foot traffic in the market. In the meantime, our Saturday staff people and volunteers are ready and happy to lend an extra hand. Our Veggie Valet service lets shoppers deposit heavy bags while they shop and pick them up either by foot or with their cars. We encourage shoppers to ask our market staff for help with getting heavy items to the Veggie Valet and into their cars. We have also added more bus tubs for product storage in our Veggie Valet to eliminate bruising.

Concern: Tourists
Many readers expressed frustration with the number of tourists the market draws. While we don’t encourage tourists, there’s not a whole lot that we can do to control the crowds that come to the market in a city full of tourists. As one respondent pointed out, “tourism is our #1 industry, so we should all be proud that tourists can come and see the best farmer's market in the country!” Another reader made a suggestion for alleviating the congestion: “People should be able to ask the farmer if they want a taste of something, but standing near the Gandhi statue with a tray of kettle corn samples is just inviting gridlock and the lookie-loos who aren't going to buy anything.” Though we won’t be banning samples from the market anytime soon, we can, and will, ask the sellers giving samples to stand close to their booths so that they don’t clog the aisles and make congestion worse.

Concern: Price
The price issue is a tricky one. Every business in the market is independent, and sets prices based on costs and the margin that it needs in order to stay solvent. CUESA has never (and will never) control prices. Though the market has a reputation for being expensive, our farmers are not making a killing, and in some cases are barely scraping by. In a recent survey of prices at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and nearby supermarkets, we found that while some bargains were available at supermarkets, overall, our farmers’ prices were no higher, and in many cases were lower, than supermarket prices. We are collecting more data and will publish the results soon. In the coming months, our educational programs will explore issues about the cost of producing high-quality, ecological, humane food.

Other improvements to look forward to:
In addition to the permanent benches on the plaza, we place many tables, chairs and benches in the market area every Saturday. We will increase this number during the summer season. Additionally, with the generous sponsorship of Stone and Youngberg, we’ve been able to replace our aging tables, chairs and signage with new ones.

We’ve applied for a USDA grant to reduce waste at the farmers’ market. Regardless of whether we receive it, we plan to begin a campaign to reduce the waste generated at the market and divert compost and recyclable market waste from the landfill.

Check at our information booth very soon for a new magnetic map that gives a bird’s eye view of the market and makes clear which sellers are certified producers and which are vendors.

See you at the market!

This is the most up-to-date information about which sellers will and won't be attending the market as of Friday, when we send this letter. If there are no changes to a seller's status, they will not be listed. To find out which farmers regularly attend each market, click here. Please understand that there are often last minute changes--it's the nature of farming!

Saturday, May 19

In/Returning: The Apple Farm, Tory Farms
Out: Lagier Ranches, Achadinha Cheese Company, Orangewood Farm (for the season)
Please note: Point Reyes Cheese Company is moving to the back plaza near Acme Bread Company

Tuesday, May 22

In/Returning: K&J Orchards